Hunger to the Max
by Nutcase62
Summary: This year is a quater quell, this years Hunger Games contestants will all be "genetically modified beings". Jeb decides that this is the perfect opportunity to prove that his creation is the best. The flock is then kidnapped and Max is forced to compete.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! So this is my first story on here, and I hope you like it! Just a note that it has been a while since I read either The Hunger Games or Maximum Ride, so if you pick up on any fact I've got wrong or anything, please let me know! Other than that, enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: **Just to say that unfortunately I do not own either The Hunger Games or Maximum Ride**  
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Everyone sat silent around the T.V, waiting, to see what horror was in store for the poor people which were reaped this year.

This year was a quater quell, and The Capitol couldn't wait. Crazy people from the Capitol screamed and cheered with excitement as President Snow climbed onto the stage.

"Hello!" he shouted with a wide grin, earning even more noise from the crowd. "This year, you guessed it, is the fifth quater quell!..." he went into a detailed outline of the history of the Hunger Games. Then, he pulled an envelope out of the box.

After clearing his throat, he announced, "For _this _hunger games, all of the contestants will be genetically modified humans!" The crowd erupted with cheers.

Jeb smiled to himself. Finally, he could prove that he had created the most indestructible being of all time.

Maximum Ride was entering the arena.

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><p>When I woke and took a look around me, a lump formed in my throat. Everyone was gone, and I mean everyone. Iggy, Gazzy, Angel, Fang, Nudge- they were all gone. I scrambled around the campsite, looking everywhere for a sign. A footprint, a ripped piece of clothing, anything that could point me in the direction that they had gone.<p>

I stopped for a minute and forced myself to breathe. I had second-last watch last night, so it could only have been a couple of hours at the most that they had been gone. They couldn't be too far away. Besides, they had probably just gone off for a morning fly.

But without telling me? The flock should know better than that.

I was about to launch myself for an aerial search but the sound of a man clearing his throat behind me caught my attention.

I turned to see our old "Dad" – Jeb. "Hello Max." He greeted me, "Missing something, are we?"

"What have you done with them?" I demanded.

"Don't worry, your flock will be quite all right. That is, if you do as I say."

I started to weigh up the pros and cons of attacking him right now. No, I told myself, find out where the others are, _then _attack Jeb.

"Where are they?" I asked him, moving forward.

Jeb laughed, "At the school of course."

"What?" memories began flooding through my mind. Cages, needles, experiments. The things that those scientists put us through when we were there. How hard it was to break out of. There was virtually no chance of me getting to my flock by themselves.

"Don't worry, Max," Jeb said, putting a hand on my shoulder- which I shook off, "We will release them as soon as you complete your task."

"I'm not doing anything for you." Yeah, I can be a bit stubborn sometimes. Especially if Jeb and the school are involved.

"Well then I suppose your flock are going to be locked up in the School forever."

I sighed. He had me on that one. "What do you want me to do?" I asked him.

"Have you ever heard of the Hunger Games?" Jeb asked me, with a smile on his face and an evil glint in his eye. I shook my head. "The Hunger Games take place in a country called Panem. In the country, there are twelve districts.

A boy and a girl from each district are chosen to take part in the games. They are trained, and then sent into an arena. Last man standing wins. 24 enter, and 1 comes out alive."

"They kill each other?" I asked in disgust. What a horrid game.

"Yes, Max. This year is a Quater Quell, which means that the games will be extra special, in a way. This year, all of the contestants will be genetically modified beings."

Okay, if a game where everyone had to kill each other was bad, a game where a whole lot of 'genetically modified beings' had to kill each other was way worse. Whoever ran this country had to be sick, twisted people.

"No way," I told Jeb.

"You don't know what I want you to do yet!" Jeb said.

"You want me to go to Panem, compete in these games and show everyone how great a scientist you are because you created the amazing bird-kids."

"Well, I wouldn't put it that way..." Jeb trailed off. "Look," he said, "You compete in the games, I'll release the flock. You don't compete in the games, they're stuck in the school forever."

"And how do I know you won't force me to take part in these games, and then keep the rest of my flock for your experiments?" I questioned.

"You don't really have much choice but to trust me."

I thought about it. Going to a country where the entertainment was sending kids into an arena to kill each other? Horrible. The thought of my flock stuck in those cages, in the dark, with scientists all around them?

Jeb was right. I had no choice.

"You release the flock as soon as my name is down for these games," I ordered.

"Of course," Jeb smiled. "Come along."

I followed Jeb to his car.

We were off to Panem.


	2. Chapter 2

Panem wasn't exactly my idea of a nice place to live.

Jeb took me to a part of the country that was known as District 6. He told me that it represented medicine and other scientific research.

There seemed to be a large excitement among many people. A crowd of teenagers seemed to be in barriers and Jeb sent me to join a group of them that he explained to me were my age group.

"Remember," he told me, "There will be a time for people to volunteer after a name is drawn, that is when you step forward."

A woman stepped onto the stage and started to make a rather large speech about the games. How they begun and how exciting this year's quater-quell would be. I didn't understand how anyone could look forward to these horrid games. When the woman said that all of the contestants of this year would be genetically modified beings, I nearly choked. That was just a nice way to say, "This year all the mutants of Panem are going to try and kill each other, isn't that great?"

Just then the reaping began. The boy that was drawn was a fourteen year old called Roy Landon. He claimed that he was part man, part cat, which apparently gave him amazing agility. He looked rather pleased to have been chosen.

The girl that was chosen was younger, just twelve, though being part tree, she aged a lot slower, so we had no idea what her real age was. She was rather upset when she got chosen, after all, what powers does a tree-woman have? You couldn't wipe the smile off of her face when I volunteered.

"Thank you," she whispered as she passed me while I was walking up to the stage. I smiled in response.

I put on a huge fake smile as I clambered up onto the stage.

"What's your name, dear?" the woman asked me, putting a thin arm around my shoulders.

"Max Ride," I responded.

"And how have you been modified," she asked with great interest.

Smiling, I told her, "I'm part bird."

"Oh!" she squeaked, 'How interesting!

"Well folks," she continued, "There are your champions! Now, we'd better be off, a lot to do you know."

On our way out, Jeb managed to get close enough to whisper into my ear, "Don't fail me," before I was ushered onto a train.

The woman introduced herself to us as Sheri. She had bright sky-blue hair, and funny patters of the same colour drawn onto her face. She explained to me in her squeaky voice that we were now off to the Capitol, in order to prepare for the games. She left us in the train cabin to eat our lunch, which had just been served to us. I couldn't believe the amount of food that these people were going to feed us. There was enough there to feed the whole flock, which was saying something.

Helping myself to food, I introduced myself to Roy. Now that I was closer, I saw that he did, in fact, have yellow coloured eyes just like that of a cats. He also showed me that he could lengthen his fingernails at will, as a cat would extend it's claws.

"So," he asked, "What can you do?"

"Oh, not a lot," I lied. No need to tell him about the super quick healing rate or my light bones. He was going to be my enemy once we stepped into the arena, but I did feel that I needed to show him something. "Just got some super-cool accessories," I told him, stretching out my wings.

"Awesome," he gasped, then put his hand up, "Can I?"

I nodded and he reached out to touch my wings.

"That is cool," he said.

We continued talking, but eventually I decided it was time for some alone time, and moved to the carriage that had been designated to me.


	3. Chapter 3

Hey! Sorry this took so long. Had to find somewhere to fit it in between school and everything. So, here's the next chapter. Hope you like it :)

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><p>We arrived in the Capitol the next morning, and the city fit right in with my idea of Panem; horrible. As we arrived, the woman who spoke on the stage turned up and introduced herself as Anay. With her bright blue hair and matching eyes, I thought that she could very well be 'genetically modified,' but apparently she was 100% human.<p>

Most of that day was a bit of a blur, I was too busy worrying about the rest of the flock to take in anything. I can remember a man coming in to make me look all nice and beautiful, apparently there would be a big entrance that we had to make. The guy waxed my legs, gave me a manicure, styled my hair, all things that I wasn't entirely sure about, but it didn't really matter much. I mean, I was about to be sent into an arena to fight for my life with a whole bunch of kids, and the flock were trapped in the school. A manicure wasn't exactly on my list of worries, though I did wonder why they bothered when soon enough I would ruin it anyway when I was fighting.

They put me in a dress that was made entirely of feathers. I thought that it wouldn't really work, I mean, who can make clothes out of feathers? But it looked surprisingly good once it was on, and there were slits in the back for my wings. The stylist was definitely eating up the whole 'part bird' thing.

Ray's outfit wasn't so impressive, but it still looked rather good on him. He was dressed head to toe in black, all that you could see was his glowing yellow eyes.

Apparently the stylists had decided against dressing to represent the districts, and decided that we should be dressed to represent ourselves – or the animal part of ourselves.

I didn't pay much attention to the other tributes who were entering the city. This part of the games was all for show, seeing how pretty the girl from district two looked didn't make her any less dangerous. These people were out to kill me.

Eventually, the time came for us to head out. Anay wanted me to fly, but I assured her that I was to heavy for flight. I didn't want the other tributes to know about that already. It was one of my advantages in this game. Of course, the other advantage was that I'd spent my whole life trying to stay alive.

I did, however, spread my wings when we stepped out of the carriage. The feathers on my dress matched them perfectly, and the citizens of the Capitol gasped and stared at me as I walked through them. I was vaguely aware of Ray beside me, waving to the crowd and blowing kisses. The girls were swooning over him too, but, without being biased, I think that I was the spectacle of that moment.

I arrived at the end of our walk of glory a couple of strides ahead of Ray, and turned to watch him take those last few steps. I watched his confidence, noticing how light he was on his feet and how nimble he looked.

As we left, I hoped that he wouldn't be the cat which killed a bird.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys, I'm so sorry that this has taken so long. I have so many things to do that it's hard to find time to fit this in. But I did it! I'm hoping that the next one won't take so long. Hoping..

Also, thank you to everyone who has reviewed. I really appreciate it.

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><p>When you've spent your whole life trying to protect yourself from evil scientists and erasers, and keep yourself alive in between attacks with very little money and very hungry bird-kids, training for the Hunger Games is a breeze. Still, it can't hurt to brush up on some of the skills offered, even if I'd been using them half of my life. I avoided fencing, knife throwing and weightlifting, knowing that they would probably give away the fact that I am not just a kid with wings, and instead focused on more trivial things, such as knot tying and edible plants.<p>

Most of the time, however, I used watching my opponents, trying to suss out what their strengths and weaknesses. I could worry about the flock later, for now I had to concentrate. For now, it was about staying alive.

I started with Roy, who seemed to have excellent agility and pretty good reflexes. Apart from that, there was nothing. He was making progress with the sword pretty quickly though, and decided to keep an eye on that.

I noticed a part giraffe from District 8. It was hard not to notice him because of his amazingly long neck, which I was pretty sure would give away his location in the arena very easily. He was good at the survival skills, but was always off balance. I decided quickly that he wasn't a threat.

Of course, the only people whom I thought I would really have to worry about, were the tributes from Districts 1, 2 and 4. The careers, I believe other people called them, who were literally _bred_ for the Hunger Games. Just as I had been bred to 'save the world'.

Both of the tributes from district one were part hyaena. They had nasty looking fangs and moved very quickly. They told us all that they could eat us and dissolve all of our bones, but I think that was just to scare us. I'd heard that the last kid to start eating the other tributes had some kind of 'accident'. Note the quotation marks.

Even so, they were very good at fighting and weight lifting, so I made a mental note to watch out for those ones.

There was a fish-boy from district four, who claimed that he could breathe underwater as well as on land, and was covered in scales, which would make it hard to cut him. His throat, however, was vulnerable, and I added that to my list of mental notes.

The girl from district two didn't give away what species she was crossed with, but you knew that she was extremely good at weight lifting, and kinda hairy, so I thought that she might be part buffalo.

I had no idea what the other careers were, but one thing was for sure, they had been trained for this their whole life. They were going to go into that arena and fight, kill and slaughter. And they were going to enjoy it.

I couldn't believe that people as sick as this actually existed.


	5. Chapter 5

So, the next big task. Impressing the judges. I'd thought about this concept long and hard. Impress the judges, get a good score and more sponsers. Well, that's how it's supposed to go. Personally, I think that I'll go for a different angle. Basically, don't impress the judges, get a crappy score, have every other contestant think that you're the weak link, REALLY annoy Jeb and eventually get a whole lot of sponsers anyway, because they'll be all over me when they realize I can fly. Yeah. I think I like my way a lot better.

I sat with Roy at the table as we waited to go in, in district order. He chatted to me, but I could tell he was nervous. I could understand why. His sponsorship could depend on this. When they finally called for District 6, I wished Roy good luck. He nodded his thanks, took a deep breath and entered the room in which his future could be decided. I didn't know what he planned to do in there. Jump around the room and hope he looked impressive, I supposed. He didn't seem great at anything during the training. But then again, neither did I. I'd made sure of that.

A few minutes later, I was called in. What I found was a rather intimidating sight. The judges were lined up at a table, eating and drinking. Reminding myself to keep it simple, I went through everything that I had learnt at the training, which wasn't much, and then added a bit of karate, I swung a sword for a bit, and named every plant in a bag and told the judges if it was edible or not.

I left that room happily, knowing that I'd shown them that maybe I could survive, but they had no reason to see me as dangerous. Yet.

Later that night, Roy and I sat down together to watch the scores broadcast. Unsurprisingly, all the careers got a solid 10. To my surprise, so did Roy. Giraffe man got a 3 - looks like he's not going to last too long – and most of the other tributes got a 7 or 8. I got a 5. Roy looked at me with sad eyes, and the others in my carriage weren't much better. They all appeared so sympathetic. Inside, I smiled. This was what I wanted. They're sympathetic, and I'm a lot more dangerous than anyone else out there knows.

Watch out Panem. I'll shock you.


	6. Chapter 6

Guess what? I just uploaded a chapter in less than a week! I feel so proud of myself!

Thank you for all the reviews and subscriptions. I'm trying to keep these coming a bit faster, but with things like life happening, I don't get much of a chance to write. If you're getting impatient, just start nagging me and I'll get to it quick! Now, off to the story!

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><p>They put me in another dress. I was starting to hate these people. The interview was meant to be the next big thing for sponsors. In my opinion, I'll be more impressive than anyone else when I start flying. But of course, they don't know that.<p>

This dress wasn't made out of feathers, but was the same colour as my wings. It was short and sleeveless, definitely not what I would choose to wear. But then, I didn't choose a lot in this game.

I was shaking slightly as I walked up to the interviewer, but I don't really think it was nerves. It was the pressure that had been put on me by all of the people who are meant to keep me alive for this. They all think that I'll need as many sponsors as I can get, because I'm not a strong competitor. Those people don't know that I blew the judging.

"So, Maximum Ride," The interview started, "You volunteered yourself for this competiton."

I smiled, the way I'd been taught, "Yes, I did."

"Why is that?"

Because my pain-in-the-butt father decided that he'd like to prove that I'm the world's strongest mutant.

"I wanted the experience," I told the interviewer, trying not to give away the fact that everything I've said here is a lie, "I've watched people win this competition all the time, I wanted to live that glory."

"As do we all," the interviewer spoke, "But you scored fairly low in the judging. Aren't you a bit worried?"

My smile became real as I told the interviewer, and the country, what I'd been waiting to say since my score was announced. "Oh, I'm not too worried. I'm a lot more dangerous than you think." I gave the interviewer a wink.

"Really?" the interviewer looked surprised at my quick answer, "And why is that?"

"I can't give away all my secrets," I said cheekily, "Otherwise there'll be no entertainment for you guys when I get in the arena."

The interview continued along those lines, I'd be asked a question, and I would brush it off, teasing about how they didn't want to know everything. I did give away some facts, but nothing that the other contenders didn't already know.

I also let some members of the audience touch my wings, which I think made me quite popular with certain audience members.

When we got back Anay told me that I did brilliantly, and that everyone was talking about how they couldn't wait to see the tricks that I had 'up my wings'.

When I got back into my room, I layed on my bed, but didn't even bother trying to go to sleep. Tomorrow I would enter an arena. I had no idea what it would look like, or what I would find in there. Everyone said there was one task- to kill. I wasn't so sure about that one.

My goal for tomorrow – survive.


	7. Chapter 7

Hi! I just wanted to thank all of you for the piles of emails I got about reviews/subscriptions/favorites for this story! And I hope that you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it (She's finally in the arena! YAY!)

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><p>The next morning I was given a new outfit. It contained a sandy brown t-shirt, and desert camouflage pants. I knew that we were going somewhere dry.<p>

After a quick test, I found that the outfit was quite easy to fight in, and there were slits in the back of the shirt for my wings. It was very comfortable, and I wondered why I wasn't allowed to wear this through all of the stages of the training.

Roy and I met outside my room, and we travelled together to wherever the arena would be. Finally, we wished each other luck and then separated. From here on out, I was on my own.

I rode an escalator to the arena. 60 seconds. That's what I had. Then it was war.

I used those 60 seconds to take in my surroundings. In front of me, was the cornucopia. That was where any supplies would be. I didn't need supplies, but they would be nice, and I was fast. I eyed a belt of knives and a backpack. They were what I wanted. None of the massive weapons that were stacked there. _Survive, not kill._

To my left was vast desert. I immediately rule that out. There was no cover there. It would be suicide. To my right there was a bit of bushland, not much, but there was some, and it seemed to get thicker further into the distance. That was the way to go.

I readied myself for the whistle. Sprint to the cornucopia, grab the knives and bag, and get to the bush. Don't show that I can fly unless absolutely necessary, and survive. That was my plan.

When the whistle blew I didn't even think. I just sprinted. Roy and the girl from district 4 got there first, but they were on the other side to me. I got there quickly, and snatched up the backpack and belt of knives. When I turned towards the bushland, the boy from district 2 had reached me. I took a step toward the bushes, but he lunged forward and grabbed the biggest knife out of my belt. He landed on the ground, but sliced through my ankle as he did. I turned and kicked him, knocking the knife out of his hand, and began to run into the distance. I could hear fighting all around me, and every now and again a cannon would go off. People weren't wrong about the cornucopia. This was a full-scale battle. Even fighting erasers wasn't this bad. I jumped a body lying on the ground and ducked a knife which had been thrown at my head, while attempting to sprint into the distance. It wasn't easy with a heavily bleeding ankle, and I wished that I could fly.

I wouldn't do that now. Not when this game had just started. I didn't know how long I could be out here for, and as long as I had this secret, I had an advantage.

I finally reached the cover of the scrub, and worked my way deeper and deeper into the bushes.

About an hour later, when I was confident that I was deep enough in the bushland, I sat down to go through the bag and hopefully do something for my ankle.

Unzipping the bag, I discovered a water bottle and a few packets of crackers, as well as some bandages and disinfectant.

Smiling I brought out the last two objects and got to work on my ankle. When I finished, I picked up the bag, and continued deeper into the scrub.


	8. Chapter 8

Hiya! I wanted to get this up quick as I'm going away tomorrow and won't be able to update for a fortnight, so I apologize if this seems really really rushed and horrible. I will try to update again as soon as I get back!

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><p>I don't know how far I'd walked when the sun started to go down and the national anthem of Panem began to play.<p>

I found a whole lot of bushes in my next few steps, and sat myself in amongst them. This would be as good a spot as any to settle for the night. Then, I looked up at the sky and watched the faces of the tributes which had been killed on the first day.

There were nine of them. I'd never seen these games before, so I didn't know if this was good or bad, but I knew there were a lot of lives left to be lost.

Roy's face wasn't shown, and neither, to my surprise, was giraffe man's. Yay for the giraffe. None of the careers were killed either, unfortunately.

Then I heard a twig snap behind me. I tore my eyes from the screen above me, and slowly reached for one of the knives, which were now hanging from my waist. I didn't show any sign that I'd heard whoever was behind me.

I couldn't tell where they were, but every now and again I heard a twig snap, or the rustle of leaves, and I knew that someone was trying to sneak up behind me.

Eventually, I felt heavy breathing on the back of my neck. Whoever was behind me raised their arm, but they never got the chance to strike.

I jumped up and spun around as quickly as I could, slamming my fist into the jaw of the girl from District eleven. She recovered pretty quickly, and came towards me for another shot, a sword raised above her head. I stepped to the side and pushed off with m wings, throwing myself over the top of her, and landing behind. I swung around and hit her again, and she stumbled off.

She then turned and tried to get me _again_. Some people just never learn. The sword swung down on top of me, but I jumped up again, kicking the sword out of her hand and sending it skittering off. The girl reached around her back and grabbed a knife out of her belt, and started fighting with me more.

The best thing about being part bird, apart from the flying, of course, is that you have super light bones, which are also super strong. That girl looked at me and saw a skinny little bird-kid, expecting to be able to beat me easily. She never really had a chance.

She was a good fighter, and brave, I'll give her that much. I don't know what animal she had inside of her, but I'll bet it was a strong one. But, not strong enough for the mutant bird-kid. Eventually it came down to one of us surviving. I gave her plenty of opportunities to run away, but she just kept coming back. So I had to kill her.

I didn't want to. I really didn't. She gave me no choice, she ran at me, and I plunged my knife into her chest, whispering the words 'I'm sorry," Into her ear as I did.

I hated myself after that, but I had to think of it with the right mind.

This is a game. I had to win. And, I was one step closer to the flock.


	9. Chapter 9

Hey everyone! I am _so _sorry that I haven't updated in so long! It's been ages since I've got some free time on my hands! I know this isn't as long as some of you would like - am working on it for the next chapter XD.

Once again, thank you for all the reviews, favorites and subscriptions. Seriously, you guys are what keep me writing this!

Enjoy!

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><p>I ran. And I kept running. I wanted to get into scrub that was thick enough for me to hide out without getting seen. For the rest of the game. Who knows, maybe the last contender that I will be fighting against will be terrible at the survival side of things and eat a poisoned fruit or something.<p>

I doubted that, but I didn't want to kill again.

I had taken the girl's supplies from the body, and then I had run.

Eventually, I had to stop. The pain in my ankle was too great. I found myself a nice, high tree with a lot of thick leaves, so you couldn't really see inside it, and quickly scanned the area before giving a couple of flaps of my wings to get myself into the treetop. It was ironic really, that this was the safest I had felt the whole day. I was a bird, I guess I belonged in a tree.

I found a fork in the branches which was comfortable enough to sit in, and stored my backpack on a branch which was close by. I changed the bandage on my ankle – all that running had got my blood pumping too quickly, and that meant that the bandage was now blood soaked. I then started going through the girl's supplies. There wasn't much. She had 3 knives and a flask of water, all of which was added to my backpack.

Then I lay my head back and fell into a very restless sleep.

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><p>I awoke to the sound of footsteps. Judging by the light, it was nearly dawn, but the amount of leaves around me hid my view of the sun, so I couldn't be sure.<p>

I flexed my ankle, quickly testing it. It still hurt, but it was better than yesterday. The advantages of super quick healing (another pro of being a bird-kid.)

The footsteps got louder, it sounded like somebody was running. I climbed through the tree to a point where I could look out and see what was going on around me.

And who did I find? Giraffe man. Running very fast through the bushes and dodging the low trees – which, I might add, looked very awkward. Behind him were the careers, gaining on him with every step.

Run giraffe!

One of them, I didn't see who, threw a knife, which missed the guy's head by a whisker. The next knife got him in the ankle, which took the guy down. He scrambled to get himself up, but by now the careers were right behind him. He turned and held up a short sword which he had been carrying, ready to attempt to defend himself.

The first career to get there was the boy from District 4, who swung at the giraffe with a knife. Giraffe blocked his attempt, and made a swinging motion around the other side of the career. This attack was blocked by the girl from District 1, who had just arrived, scaring the giraffe who didn't see her. That's one of the rules of battle, giraffe boy. Know your surroundings.

Another boy, whom I couldn't place – I only saw the back of his head – arrived then, and threw a punch at the back of the giraffe's head. As the other careers arrived, I decided that this really wasn't fair. Every career against a giraffe? The giraffe doesn't stand a chance.

I had three knives in my backpack from the girl whom I killed earlier. Three more than what would fit in my belt. So I guess I had three knives to spare.

My knife throwing skill wasn't the best, but I decided that it wouldn't be a problem. I wasn't going to be able to save the giraffe, I knew that, but I had to try and make it a bit fairer on him. I took a knife from my belt, and aimed it at the last boy, who hadn't reached the pack yet. It landed in his shoulder, shocking him. He stopped running, instead focusing on pulling the knife from his shoulder. My second knife landed in the leg of the boy from District 4. He screamed like a little girl. Seriously, Angel would be stronger than that guy.

By now the Careers were looking around, trying to work out where the knives were coming from. Giraffe, though not the greatest or fastest of fighters, wasn't stupid.

He knew that the Careers were distracted, so he took his opportunity. He swung his sword at the girl from District 1, burying it in her shoulder. He pulled it out as she swung back at him and got him in the base of the neck. How unfortunate, it would be extremely hard for him to duck.

I played smart with my last knife. I threw it to a tree behind the Careers, so that it landed with a loud 'thunk'. The Careers turned, looking for what made the noise, and the giraffe made a move. He stabbed the boy from 2 in the back, and pulled out his sword. The Careers turned their attention back to him, but he was ready. He swung at the a girl's neck, and she deflected him, but he managed to swing his sword around and get her in the shoulder.

A boy came up behind him with a knife, and he looked around and saw him. As the boy reached around to slit his neck, he threw his sword at the girl from 2. It buried itself in her chest.

Hats of to Giraffe, for going down with a fight.

And causing a lot of damage as he fell.

The careers searched his body.

"Good idea with the ankles," one girl said.

"Works every time," replied a boy. Oh yeah? Try that with me. "It's just unfortunate that you didn't get here quick enough to kill him before he caused any damage."

One of the Careers pulled the sword from his friend's body. "Shame to lose her," he said, "She was good with plants."

"We would have had to kill her anyway," The boy from District 1 said.

"So what do we do know?" asked another girl, as she finished removing all of the items from the giraffe's body.

"We search the area, and find that rat who got in our way," sneered one.

Not rat, bird.

I headed back to my fork, and snuggled in, knowing that there was no way that the careers could climb this tree.


	10. Chapter 10

Hey guys. Once again, apologies for not updating sooner, and for having a short chapter (again). And thank you to everyone who reviewed. Seriously, I probably still wouldn't have updated if it wasn't for you.

Just wanted to let you know, that I'm probably going to have to wrap this up in the next few chapters. I really should get this finished before I head back to school (because I've got way too many fanfictions going on right now...). So it's gonna be kind of rushed - I know, that sucks. On the bright side, it should mean faster updates and longer chapters (I hope.) Anyway, enjoy!

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><p>I woke up with a start.<p>

More voices. I could hear them, moving closer. "Max?" I heard someone call out, "You in here?"

I looked up, shocked. Roy?

"You know you can't hide forever."

Oh, you just watch me. I settled back in the fork, no one was getting to me here.

"We just want to talk with you," a girl's voice said. There was a girl with Roy?

Yeah, that made it so much less likely that they would kill me as soon as I showed myself. Still, I was curious, what did they want to talk about?

"We have a sort of...proposition," Another boy called. Hmmm. That was interesting.

Eventually, the curiosity got to me. Curiosity killed the cat, right?

Well, lucky I was a bird.

I crawled along a branch and slowly poked my head out, looking down to where the voices were coming from.

I slowly lowered myself onto my stomach, so that I could at least give the appearance that I was rather comfortable.

I found that I was looking down on Roy, who was accompanied by two girls, from districts 8 and 11, if a remember correctly, and a boy from district 7.

"What do you want?" I asked from my (reasonably) safe point up in the tree. I swung my legs around behind me, to make it look like I knew exactly what I was doing.

"Uh, wanna come down from there? It might be a bit easier to talk to you if you were on the ground with us."

I tilted my head to the side, considering his request for a moment.

"No," I told Roy, "I quite like it up here. It's comfortable, and there's less chance that you'll kill me."

"We're not going to kill you," The girl from 11 said.

"I think, given the aim of this game, it's a precaution that I'll have to take."

"What makes you think that I couldn't climb up there and kill you, if I wanted to."

I looked down the tree. "I'd like to see you try."

Roy shrugged, and moved to the bottom of the tree, and before I know it he was moving up...how?

Claws. Cats had claws which the used to climb trees, to eat the birds in it. I'd read it to Angel from a book once.

Roy had claws, and he was climbing a tree. To eat a bird.

Well, I hoped I was wrong about the eating a bird bit.

I watched as he climbed through the branches of the tree to sit right in front of me.

"See? No killing."

"Okay, I'll come down," I told him.

Roy began to climb down the tree. I decided to take a shortcut. I grabbed my stuff from the fork, and then jumped, using my wings to glide me down safely.

The girl from 8 looked at me with confusion. "You can fly?"

"I can glide. That was gliding," It probably wasn't a good idea to mention that I actually could fly.

"So, what did you need to talk to me about?"

"Well," the boy began, "Almost every year in these games, the Careers win. Because they train for it."

"And then they gang up on us, to make it easier for them," the girl from 8 continued.

"We thought it was about time that they got a taste of what it was like," Roy finished.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" I asked, confused. I didn't belong in Panem, so all of this stuff about how the Hunger Games went was knew to me. I was processing that while trying to understand what they were saying.

"We want to gang up on the careers," the boy from 7 told me.

"We're trying to get as many as possible to join us, then we'll attack the Careers," 11 said.

"So, you want to gang up on the careers, just so that the careers don't win," I said.

"Yeah, that's right," Roy confirmed, "So you in?"

I took a moment to think things through.

If I joined this group, there was a chance that they could kill me at any moment.

But, let's be honest, so could anyone else in this game. And I still had my secret weapon (A.K.A wings).

And really, could I sit in that tree forever? I mean, eventually this game would have to end.

"Alright," I told them, "I'm in."

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><p>Apparently being 'in' meant joining them on a long search for every other contestant alive who wasn't a career. And, unfortunately, we had to wait until nightfall to work out exactly who those were.<p>

Which really doesn't explain how they found me, but Roy put it off as some luck and the idea that a bird might be hanging in a tree.

I'd slept a fair bit, so it wasn't really a problem that we were walking around for most of the day, trying to work out where the Careers might be now. I was the last one to have seen them, but the direction that I pointed in really wasn't much use. Of course, I could fly off and find their whereabouts quite easily, but that wouldn't do much for the secret that I had been trying to hide.

I was told that the girl from District 8 was named Ami, and her friend from district 11 was Lily. The boy from 7 was Kori. They weren't really keen on telling me what animal they were crossed with. I didn't really mind, I was keeping secrets too.

Eventually the others grew tired, and I volunteered to keep watch while they slept. I'd had enough sleep already. It surprised me how easily the accepted this and fell asleep, considering I was meant to kill them and all...

I watched closely when the pictures of dead contestants were shown that night. I made a list on the of all the districts, crossing out the contestants who had died.

Afterwards I had a list of those who weren't careers that were still out there.

I had a list of the people we needed to find.

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><p>The others were quite impressed when they woke up, and then went straight to identifying who the people on the list were.<p>

"The girl from 12, isn't that Anita?" Roy asked.

"Yeah, the frog-girl," Ami confirmed.

"Frog?" Kory asked, surprised.

"Yeah, apparently she's a really good swimmer. Nice girl. The croaking gets annoying though," Ami told us.

"Well, if she's a frog, she's probably somewhere with water, right?" I suggested.

Roy nodded, "There's a lake on the other side of this scrub. I've been there. I'd suggest that she's somewhere around there..."

It continued like that for a while. Working out who the remaining tributes were and what they were, and from there discussing where they might be. We figured that most of the tributes would be in the forest area, rather than the desert part of the arena. Except, maybe, the boy from District 3, who was part Camel.

We made a decision to head for the lake first, as Roy knew where it was. We packed up our stuff and headed off, eating some berries which we found to be quite tasty (and not poisonous) on the way.


	11. Chapter 11

Hey! Sorry for the short chapter (again). I'm thinking that I only have two chapters to go, so they should be pretty long. Hopefully. If not there will be an extra chapter.

I'm hoping that you don't mind me rushing through this a bit. It sucks, I know, but life is approaching...

Anyway, thank you once again for all your reviews. Hopefully won't be long before the next chapter is up!

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><p>Thanks to Ami being (sort of) friends with the frog, it was pretty easy to convince her to join our group. To make things even better, Anita was (sort of) friends with Rayn, the girl from District 3. (Yeah, not much room for friends in this game, but it would seem that the three of them had some kind of alliance going – an I won't hunt you down and kill you if you don't hunt me down and kill me kind of thing.)<p>

We found Rayn not too far away, in a meadow type clearing, chewing on some grass. I'd say that was weird, but I'd eaten worse when on the run with the flock.

With Anita and Rayn on our side, the only person left was Jakk, who we thought would probably be in the desert, but we honestly weren't too sure if we wanted to go in there...

"It's really open!" Anita argued, "And there is absolutely no water in there. I'd be more worried about dying of thirst then the careers finding us."

"There is no way to guarantee that there is no oasis in there, is there?" Ami asked.

"Well, if Jakk's in there he'd have to get water somehow," Kory reasoned.

"Yeah, but he's a camel, their made for the desert. They can go for days without water."

"I can go a couple of days without," Rayn said, "I just drink a lot before and after."

"I have a couple of flasks," I offered.

"Yeah, I've got one," Lily told us.

"So if we filled them completely, and rationed the water, we might be able to last a couple of days, right?" Roy asked.

"And there'd have to be a water source in there somewhere," Kory repeated.

"So what if we go in, and if it looks like we're going to run out of water, we'll just come straight out. Okay?" Nobody could find a way to argue with Roy after that. He seemed to be a bit of a leader in this group.

We filled the flasks and headed off towards the desert.

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><p>Desert. That was the hot and dry sandy thing, right?<p>

Right. It was horrible in there, and I know that our little group wouldn't be in there if it weren't for the fact that Jakk was a camel.

And I was seriously considering an aerial search. If it weren't for the fact that the secret could save my life, I probably would have done it.

The good news was, that being all part animals, most of us had a bit of an in-built water detector, so we just headed the way that we thought Jakk would have once in here. With Anita in the lead, considering she was the frog girl.

But we also knew that if she went too long without water, she could be in some serious trouble.

So we really needed to find Jakk, and fast.

When you're in a scorching hot desert, seconds feel like minutes, and minutes feels like hours. If it wasn't for the sun, we would have had no idea what time it was.

Of course, who was to say the sun in here wasn't artificial, and that whoever ran these games wasn't just trying to confuse us?

So I had no idea how long we walked before we found the waterhole.

It was amazing really, that there would be a source of water in this dry, hot place.

We settled down for a while by the water, Anita needed to rest, and the others weren't really keen on walking more either. We would have to leave finding Jakk to a little bit later.

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><p>As it turns out, we didn't find Jakk. Jakk found us. And he wasn't very happy that we'd found him. Not at all.<p>

It would seem that his plan was to hang in the desert, because no one else would, and wait until there was only one contestant left. It was, really, his only shot at winning the game.

So when he found us, he wasn't too eager to talk.

Instead, he tried to kill us.

And it just happened that I was the one closest to him when he did.

He swung his arm at me, but I quickly entered defence mode and knocked it out of the way. We fought for a bit, but it didn't take long for me to get him on the ground with a knife at his throat. Really, it's not that hard when you've been chased by erasers your whole life.

Everyone stared at me.

"You got a 5?" Ami said in disbelief.

"Yep," I replied.

"She did say that she had something up her sleeve," Roy told them.

"I thought she was bluffing," Ami told us, honestly. I couldn't blame her really.

"Well, want to talk to him now?" I asked, bringing their attention to the boy on the ground with knee in his chest and a knife at his throat.

Roy proceeded to explain our little plan, and eventually Jakk nodded.

"Good," Kori said, then nodded at me and I let Jakk up.

Immediately, Jack leapt at me. When will they learn? I angled the knife in my hand and it dug itself into his chest. I didn't even turn around.

"Sorry guys," I told them, as they gaped at the dead boy behind me.

"There is no way that you are a 5," Rayn told me.

They have no idea.

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><p>After our little meeting with Jakk, we headed out of the desert and back into the forest, trying to work out where the careers would be.<p>

"Probably looking for us," Kori said when the question was asked.

"So do we go looking for them?" Anita questioned.

"Well, we could wait for them to come to us," Lili said.

"We could always set up some kind of trap," I suggested.

"What do you mean?" Roy asked.

"Well, they don't know that we've teamed up, do they? So we could leave one person in a clearing, and then the rest of us could hide, until the careers come, and then we get them."

"I like it," he said. The others agreed.

"The question now," Lili started, "Is this. Who's gonna be the bait?"

"Well, I could do it," I said, "I've got the lowest score. They're going to be the least afraid of me. But me and Roy can get into those high trees. Get an attack from above as well as the sides."

Roy nodded, "Max is right. We're better off if we have her and I in trees."

"What if I do it?" Anita asked. Everyone looked at her. "C'mon, what's dangerous about a frog? And I can use a knife."

"Everyone okay with this?" Roy asked. Everyone seemed to agree.

"Need this?" I asked Anita, offering her a knife.

Anita took it, "Thanks."

Anita positioned herself in the middle of a clearing, and we were all around her. Waiting. Rory climbed up a tree, and I wasn't far behind, using my wings as a leverage to pull myself up. The two of us climbed through the tree to a point at which we wouldn't be seen.

"Max?" Roy asked as we were on our way up.

I looked over at him.

"How did you get up the last tree? The one we found you in."

"I climbed," I told him, "Same way as I did this one."

Roy shook his head, "That tree was way too long for you to climb. You would have had to jump up to one of the branches. And even I couldn't do that."

I grunted, heaving myself up onto a higher branch and continued to climb.

Roy pulled himself up, and looked straight into my eyes. "Those wings are more than just accessories, aren't they."

I moved into my position, waiting for the careers to attack.


	12. Chapter 12

Hey everyone! Thanks for reviewing and subscribing (again). Well, this is the second to last chapter, and it is not nearly as long as I'd hoped it would be. I apologize for my dodginess when writing fight scenes. Hopefully it's okay :-)

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><p>We didn't know how long we would have to wait until the Careers would come. I made myself comfortable in the tree, but in a position from which I could attack at any moment.<p>

The whole time I'd been in the arena, I hadn't had a lot of time to think. About what happens afterwards. Hopefully a lot of people would be killed in this battle. It sounded sick, but if everyone had to die, I'd rather it be sooner rather than later.

I wondered if Jeb had kept his word. If the flock were free. Somehow I doubted it, as if the school would just let them go. The thought brought me to wonder how the school got them. If I knew the flock, they would have put up one heck of a fight. They would've had to send a whole lot more people. Or, perhaps, make some kind of super eraser. Or some other form of crossover breed.

I looked around me. Across from me was cat-man, and below me was a frog-girl. There was other modified kids all around me. I was playing a game with them. A game where we would find out which was the best.

If these games hadn't been running for years, I would've said that this was a sick, twisted game that the school had come up with in order to work out which of their creations were the strongest.

But all that really mattered now was that I get out of here, and back to my flock.

Roy knew my secret. He knew that I could fly, and there was no point in denying it. The cat wasn't stupid. Perhaps I could keep it from the others, but I knew that they kind of looked up to him, for uniting them against the careers.

So if I was going to use the wings as a surprise, I would need to do it soon.

It was then that the decision was made – I was getting out of here tonight.

Anita sat on the ground, making the occasional croaking noise, in the hope of drawing the careers in. Those of us who were confined to the ground were watching, waiting and growing more impatient by the minute. Several times Roy had to risk giving us away to stop them from making too much noise.

Roy and I just sat. Quietly waiting.

The playing of the Panem national anthem marked the time that brought night, and we used the sound to mask a bit of quiet conversation, but nothing important was said. I looked up at the night sky, to see that the boy who the giraffe had stabbed in the back had died. Whether it was from the injury, or because his 'friends' had killed him, we couldn't be sure.

All I could tell was that there was one less person between me and the flock.

The sound stopped, the pictures faded from the sky, and the hours dragged on.

It would have been around midnight when we finally got some action. The four remaining Careers approached where Anita sat, one of them coming from each direction. Roy was the one who spotted them – the cats eyes were really good at night.

He hissed a warning at each of the contestants with us, and climbed to a better point in the tree, where he could see what was going on.

He had a couple of us move, so that we were positioned in a way that the careers wouldn't see anyone until it was too late. Anita moved to a crouching position, staying low with my knife in her hand, ready to attack.

The atmosphere got more and more intense as the Careers got closer. I could almost feel the nerves of everybody around me.

When the Careers finally got there, they made their move pretty quickly. Someone yelled "NOW!" and suddenly each Careers was sprinting towards Anita, ready to kill.

It was only seconds after that Kori, Rayn, Ami and Lili showed up behind a career each, earning a moment of surprise where they could get the upper hand on a fight with the Careers. Rayn and Anita joined up against the boy who had called out before, while the others were fighting one each. Roy and I stayed in the trees, we might need the surprise again.

It wasn't long before the boy from District 1 out powered Lili and stuck a knife through her chest, pulling it out again before heading to help his fellow District member fight Kori. I winced at Lili's face. She was still alive, but unable to do anything. That must really suck.

It seemed that Kori was being overwhelmed by the two Careers fighting him. Rayn and Anita were doing okay, but considering it was two against won, and they were about even, I wasn't counting on that lasting too long. Ami didn't look so hot either – she was just about to be pushed into a tree by the District 4 girl.

My eyes flicked over to Roy, who was watching me. He raised his eyebrows. I knew what the question was. I nodded.

The two of us dropped into the battle. I used my wings to help me glide down and land just behind the District 4 girl, shoving a knife in her back just in time to stop her from shoving a blade into Ami. A cry from my left told me that Roy had landed, and I risked a quick glance to see that he had managed to land, claws out, on top of the boy from 4.

Our entrance seemed to throw the others off a bit, and we took the opportunity to do what damage we could, but most of the people who weren't careers, weren't anywhere near as strong as them. In other words, our side had quite a disadvantage.

Ami and I made quick word of the girl after I joined the fight, but Ami didn't last a lot longer than that. The girl from 1 killed Ami, and then tried to get rid of me. That wasn't going to happen.

I grabbed the arm that swung at me and twisted so that 1 ended up with her back in the tree, causing her to reveal some nasty fangs.

I heard Anita cry out, and glanced over to see her fall to the ground. Quickly, I turned my attention back to the girl in front of me, who had used my moment of distraction to begin running towards me. I blocked her attack and sent her hurling away from me, but she only got up and tried again, this time jumping on top of me.

There was another scream. Another death. I couldn't tell who it was, I needed to get this girl off of me.

I pushed upwards, using my wings as an extra measure and throwing the girl off of me. She drew a knife and threw it at my head. I ducked just in time for the blade to go hurling over my head and land in Kori's back. He cried out, and the boy from District 4 finished him off.

I swung my leg under the District 1 girl, tripping her over. I moved quickly enough to get a knife in her heart before she'd gotten up. I ran to where Roy was having a hard time defending himself against the three remaining careers. Which meant Rayn had gone down before.

The others now had the advantage of strength and numbers. I had the advantage of a life defending myself, and wings. And Roy knew about the wings now. The secret was out.

I grabbed the boy giving Roy the most trouble – District 2 I think – and flew him a safe distance away. Roy gasped when I took off, but managed to get himself back in the fight pretty quickly.

I dropped 2 in the middle of the Desert. I figured that he would have a hard enough time getting back to not cause us too much trouble.

I flew back to the fight as fast as I possibly could. Which was pretty fast.

I dropped down behind the Careers, picking a fight with the boy from District 4, and leaving Roy to do what he could against District 1.

The boy from 4 was pretty good, knew about every move in the book. But I had a lot more experience in fighting against every move in the book, so it wasn't overly hard for me to keep up with him.

We battled our way through the forest, moving away from Roy and the other Career. I jumped logs and ducked branches, while attempting to get a hold on the guy so that I could finish the job. Finally, I decided that an extra measure needed to be taken, and flew straight up.

The boy watched me in amazement as I got higher, but the expression turned to fear as he realized what I was doing, and turned to run.

I swopped down on him as he was sprinting away and dug a knife into his back, making sure he was dead before I flew back to where Roy had been fighting 1.

Just in time to see the guy grab Roy and break his neck. Which left me and two Careers.

I moved in on the boy from District 1. The only thought I had now was getting back to the flock. Nothing else mattered.

I moved quickly against the boy, but he was strong. Stronger than me, which is uncommon. He was using pure force against me, in an attempt to bend me to his will. I wasn't having any of this.

I'd fought Erasers, and they were pretty strong. I could take this guy.

Eventually, after a lot of twisting, turning, punching, kicking and thrashing about, I got a knife in the guy. He was dead.

Which left one person between me and getting out of here.

One person between me and the flock.


	13. Chapter 13

__Hello again! I'm afraid that I must apologize yet again for my failure to update. I know, I'm terrible. School has been the most evil thing ever for me and I started an online course in book writing on top of that, so had to focus more on writing my own original story. (The good news is that I now have a completed manuscript and am looking into publication options, isn't that amazing?) Anyhow, finally, I have forced myself to take the time out of my research and all the stuff I have to do for my own book to actually write this chapter. Yay. It's short and rushed, but it's there, so hopefully it's okay.

A final thank you to everyone who's reviewed, subscribed or just read the story and I hope that you've all gotten some sort of enjoyment or entertainment from it. I hope to hear from all of you again in the future! Now, I'll stop babbling on so that you can actually read the story. Seeya!

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><p><em>This ends tonight.<em>

My promise to myself that tonight is the night that I would get out of here. I would get back to the flock and put as much distance between us and Panem as physically possible.

I clenched my eyes shut. There were so many bodies around me. I was used to death, I'd killed plenty of erasers in my time, but this was somehow different.

_The flock._

The flock could be the only thing I was focused on. I had to get back to them. I had to get out of here and make sure that Jeb had kept his word. That they weren't being holed up in the School.

I took off without a second thought, flying my path back towards the desert. I had to find him. The boy from District Two. The last boy alive in this game.

The last boy I was going to have to kill in order to get out of here.

I thought about leaping straight into the air and flying off to find the guy, but I thought better of it, and filled myself up first. I ate pretty much any food that I had left – which isn't hard when you're a super hungry bird kid. I decided that I would need the energy. I followed my snack with a short sleep high in a tree. I know that most of the time somebody would attacked me when I was tired and hungry anyway, but I figured that if I had the option, it was best to go into the fight well rested. After I woke up, however, I didn't hesitate. It was straight into the air for me, and off in search of the last other person alive in this game.

I'd dropped the last boy left in the game in the forest, so that was the first place that I headed. I figured that the boy would've been making his way out of the desert, because that's exactly what anyone who wanted to survive (not including camels) would do. I found him easily. Seriously, searching from the air is so much better than walking around never knowing where you had and hadn't been. I swooped down and landed behind him, wings spread.

He turned around, "So, the weakest girl in the competition," he said with a smile, "the only thing between me and eternal glory."

I smiled, "Too bad I wasn't as weak as everyone thought."

"You're weak enough for me."

"Did you forget when I picked you up and flew you out here?"

"I was distracted. I won't make the same mistake this time."

A knife flew above my head and I quickly ducked, sending out a low kick. The guy drew another knife and headed towards me at full speed. With a little help from my wings, I jumped over him. He turned around and attempted to punch me, but I blocked him and threw a punch back. The fight continued in that manner for a short amount of time – he had nothing on some of the other people can do. It didn't take long for the guy to slip up and I took the opportunity to stick a knife in his chest.

Time to get back to the flock.

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><p>Apparently, the Capitol had different ideas. They took me into a healing facility which I was forced to go through. I was<p>

complimented and congratulated. None of it really meant anything to me. I just wanted to get to the flock as soon as possible.

Eventually Anay came to me and announced that it was time for my post-victory interview.

"I'm not doing the interview," I replied firmly.

"What do you mean? You have to do the interview. It's the rules."

"Screw the rules," I replied, "I'm getting the hell out of this country."

"You can't!"

"Why not? I don't care if it's against the rules. I have to go. Now."

I turned and headed straight to the lifts, hitting the ground floor without even thinking.

"Max," Anay ran up behind me. "You can't leave. It's not right."

"Oh, but sending 24 kids into an arena to kill each other is?" I entered the lift and left Anay behind. I hit the ground floor quickly and ran out the door, taking to the air as soon as I could. I was free again. Now I just needed to get to the flock.

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><p>"Jeb!" I called, standing out the front of my worst nightmare – the school. "I know you're here. Get out here now!"<p>

Eventually a smiling Jeb exited the building, "Max, I thought you had an interview to do."

"I don't care about the interview, Jeb. If you're that into the games, you go and do it. I just want my flock back."

"You'll get your flock back."

"Now."

Jeb remained silent.

"I won your games, Jeb. I've killed so many people to get here, just to get them back. Don't do this now. Let them go."

"They're gone, Max. I released them as soon as you won the games."

My mouth dropped. Could Jeb seriously do something so reasonable? I doubted it.

"Then where are they?"

"They're at your Mum's house," he replied, "They're waiting for you there. Here."

He passed me a note. I recognised Fang's handwriting immediately. We'd never had the need to read or write, so none of us were really good at it, but I could see that it was Fang who had tried.

"How do I know you didn't force him to write this?" I asked, scanning the note.

"You don't," Jeb replied, "You just have no choice but to trust me. Unless, of course, you would like to search the school for yourself."

I stared at Jeb. We both knew that I would never enter that building again if there was another option.

"Congratulations, by the way," Jeb grinned. "You won the games. Now you just need to save the world."

I ignored him, instead choosing to once again take to the skies. Deciding that if the flock wasn't at Mum's house, I would be back. Jeb would be the one to pay for it.

And so I drifted off. Back to the closest thing that the flock had ever had to a home.

Back to the flock.


End file.
